When scientists talk about the cryosphere, they mean the places on Earth where water is in its solid form, frozen into ice or snow. Read more ...

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NASA IceBridge3451 viewsThe Operation IceBridge mission, initiated in 2009, collects airborne remote sensing measurements to bridge the gap between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-I) mission and the upcoming ICESat-II mission. This photo was taken over the Patagonian ice fields, on November 23, 2009.

1890 viewsThis Landsat image of Crane Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula is overlain with ICESat and Airborne Topopgraphic Mapper (ATM) tracks. ATM is a lidar sensor that is now part of the IceBridge mission. Over time, ICESat and ATM measurements, together with visible imagery, can detect thinning of the ice and accelerated flow of ice into the ocean. Large glaciers such as Crane have the potential to contribute significantly to sea level rise.

ICESat/GLAS tracks over Hektoria Glacier, Antarctica1564 viewsThis figure shows an image map of three ICESat/GLAS tracks from the eight-day missions that were used to investigate the response of Hektoria Glacier in the Antarctic Peninsula to the loss of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in March of 2002. The three tracks cross the lower portion of the glacier at an angle. In dark blue are contours showing the level of speed increase in meters per day since breakup of the shelf.

1518 viewsAntarctica is covered with ice--much of it in the form of glaciers and ice streams.
Image Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC

1353 viewsThese glaciers used to terminate in the sea; now that they terminate on land, it makes traveling by land via dogsled even more difficult.
Image courtesy Andy Mahoney

1287 viewsThis photo was taken during a flight over the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Bird Glacier lurks in the background, with Darwin Glacier in the foreground.
Image Credit: Courtesy Ted Scambos and Rob Bauer, NSIDC
Megadunes Web site

972 viewsThe IceTrek team drove up from Rio Gallegos to Parque Nacional los Glaciares. This is one in a series of photos from Parque Nacional los Glaciares.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Ted Scambos and Rob Bauer, NSIDC
IceTrek Web site